You’ve read it in all the influencer articles, you’ve heard it at conferences and in meetings, and you’ve listened to it through podcasts for ages now. Content is king. And, it doesn’t matter if you’re a business- or customer-facing industry, you must have content because it reigns supreme for the Google. But not just any content will do. It must be high-quality content that solves the user’s issues. The majestic, sparkling unicorn of all content. Even when that user is another business. So, how is this done? How can you compete in a world with content that is for a business, by a business? That’s where we come in with our handy-dandy B2B Content Marketing Survival Guide.
Business to business. That’s all B2B means. In the context of B2B content marketing, you’re writing about what your business can offer another business. Maybe you’re a business that sells office equipment, and you’re trying to reach markets that need office equipment. How do you do that organically? Long gone is the era of door-to-door sales. Now, we have the world wide web at our disposal, opening more doors than ever before. Your online assets such as your website, email campaigns, and social platforms become your virtual army salespeople tasked with not allowing the doors to slam in your face. Optimizing your content in all those media to capture and retain sales is what your goal is. Well, it’s what it should be, at least.
Your business needs a goal for content marketing, and related content marketing strategies to help you meet that goal.
Without a goal and strategies, you don’t know where you’re trying to go. Your goal, as a B2B company, is likely either to generate leads (that you’ll hand off to a sales team), or sales (if you can sell directly to your customers without a salesperson’s intervention). Another goal could be to build awareness for your company (especially in the early stages of your business). Or you could be looking for something else or in-between.
Whatever your goal is, codify it. Write it down. Make everyone in your company aware that that’s what you’re trying to do with your content marketing efforts. And if you can’t articulate your goal, how can you get your team working in the same direction as you? This is a key part of any marketing strategy development, and it goes the same for content marketing.
Some things you need to think about in order to develop your strategies include:
When writing your content, whether it’s a blog post or a FB post, some key things to ask yourself are:
Now that you know what direction you’re headed, create an editorial calendar and plot out what your content writing is going to produce, when it’s going to be done, and where it’s going to be shared. This will hold everyone involved in the content marketing process accountable, and it will also keep you organized and focused.
Yet, your stories also need to answer questions. Your articles must be engaging, yet informative. So how can you accomplish all of that? You must guide your buyer on their journey. You’re like the cruise director, laying the day out for the travelers, so they don’t have to think, they just need to do. That’s essentially what you need to do when creating your content. Tell the buyer what they need to know, and why they need your product. Create an a-ha moment so huge that it leaves them no choice but to jump in and buy what you’re smelling if you smell what we’re cooking.
You need to prove to whomever is reading your information that your service or product can and will solve all their problems. Even the problems they’ve yet to discover!
With each piece of content that is created, you have the potential to turn it into many related content pieces. One blog post can also become an infographic, an ebook, an email series, and a bunch of social posts. This is called content atomization. It’s a highly efficient way to get a whole bunch of content out of one blog post – like weeks, if not months, of content!
Instead of trying to figure out the best place for a piece of content, why not just post it everywhere in different forms?
Analytics are key to any content marketing process, because you need to know if your content marketing efforts are working. You can use Google Analytics and Search Console, both free Google tools used for analytics. Through your analytics platform, pay attention to your:
The most important metrics are the ones that grow your business. Are you generating leads? Gaining more email subscribers? Getting more likes and followers on your social media platforms? If all your numbers are going up, this is an indication that what you’re doing is working.
We’d love to hear about your B2B content marketing efforts. Please drop us a note in the comments or tweet at us @crackerjackmktg.
Stephanie is the Founder and CEO of Crackerjack Marketing.
She’s been in social media for over 20 years, and teaches digital marketing at universities in Barcelona and Bangkok.
Follow her on LinkedIn
for expert LinkedIn and marketing advice.
Stephanie founder and CEO of Crackerjack Marketing.
She’s been in social media for over 20 years, and teaches digital marketing at universities in Barcelona and Bangkok.
Follow her on LinkedIn
for expert LinkedIn and marketing advice.
Are you stressed out by the time it takes to create great content?
In this handy Google Doc, which you can save and use on your own, you’ll get a super-simple layout to guide your content creation and management efforts.
You’ve read it in all the influencer articles, you’ve heard it at conferences and in meetings, and you’ve listened to it through podcasts for ages now. Content is king. And, it doesn’t matter if you’re a business- or customer-facing industry, you must have content because it reigns supreme for the Google. But not just any content will do. It must be high-quality content that solves the user’s issues. The majestic, sparkling unicorn of all content. Even when that user is another business. So, how is this done? How can you compete in a world with content that is for a business, by a business? That’s where we come in with our handy-dandy B2B Content Marketing Survival Guide.
Business to business. That’s all B2B means. In the context of B2B content marketing, you’re writing about what your business can offer another business. Maybe you’re a business that sells office equipment, and you’re trying to reach markets that need office equipment. How do you do that organically? Long gone is the era of door-to-door sales. Now, we have the world wide web at our disposal, opening more doors than ever before. Your online assets such as your website, email campaigns, and social platforms become your virtual army salespeople tasked with not allowing the doors to slam in your face. Optimizing your content in all those media to capture and retain sales is what your goal is. Well, it’s what it should be, at least.
Your business needs a goal for content marketing, and related content marketing strategies to help you meet that goal.
Without a goal and strategies, you don’t know where you’re trying to go. Your goal, as a B2B company, is likely either to generate leads (that you’ll hand off to a sales team), or sales (if you can sell directly to your customers without a salesperson’s intervention). Another goal could be to build awareness for your company (especially in the early stages of your business). Or you could be looking for something else or in-between.
Whatever your goal is, codify it. Write it down. Make everyone in your company aware that that’s what you’re trying to do with your content marketing efforts. And if you can’t articulate your goal, how can you get your team working in the same direction as you? This is a key part of any marketing strategy development, and it goes the same for content marketing.
Some things you need to think about in order to develop your strategies include:
When writing your content, whether it’s a blog post or a FB post, some key things to ask yourself are:
Now that you know what direction you’re headed, create an editorial calendar and plot out what your content writing is going to produce, when it’s going to be done, and where it’s going to be shared. This will hold everyone involved in the content marketing process accountable, and it will also keep you organized and focused.
Yet, your stories also need to answer questions. Your articles must be engaging, yet informative. So how can you accomplish all of that? You must guide your buyer on their journey. You’re like the cruise director, laying the day out for the travelers, so they don’t have to think, they just need to do. That’s essentially what you need to do when creating your content. Tell the buyer what they need to know, and why they need your product. Create an a-ha moment so huge that it leaves them no choice but to jump in and buy what you’re smelling if you smell what we’re cooking.
You need to prove to whomever is reading your information that your service or product can and will solve all their problems. Even the problems they’ve yet to discover!
With each piece of content that is created, you have the potential to turn it into many related content pieces. One blog post can also become an infographic, an ebook, an email series, and a bunch of social posts. This is called content atomization. It’s a highly efficient way to get a whole bunch of content out of one blog post – like weeks, if not months, of content!
Instead of trying to figure out the best place for a piece of content, why not just post it everywhere in different forms?
Analytics are key to any content marketing process, because you need to know if your content marketing efforts are working. You can use Google Analytics and Search Console, both free Google tools used for analytics. Through your analytics platform, pay attention to your:
The most important metrics are the ones that grow your business. Are you generating leads? Gaining more email subscribers? Getting more likes and followers on your social media platforms? If all your numbers are going up, this is an indication that what you’re doing is working.
We’d love to hear about your B2B content marketing efforts. Please drop us a note in the comments or tweet at us @crackerjackmktg.
Are you stressed out by the time it takes to create great content?
In this handy Google Doc, which you can save and use on your own, you’ll get a super-simple layout to guide your content creation and management efforts.
Stephanie founder and CEO of Crackerjack Marketing.
She’s been in social media for over 20 years, and teaches digital marketing at universities in Barcelona and Bangkok.
Follow her on LinkedIn
for expert LinkedIn and marketing advice.
Join 5,000+ marketers who receive our B2B marketing ideas and insights each week.
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